For the last time this year we take a look back at the London Championship and in particular the contest held in March 1969 at Buckingham Gate. Competitors in the Bratach Gorm were:
The result was:
1 John MacFadyen [pictured top with the Bratach], Battle of Auldearn 2
2 William MacDonald, Benbecula, Lament for Mary MacLeod
3 John MacDougall, Lady Margaret MacDonald’s Salute
4 Hugh MacCallum, Lament for Donald Duaghall MacKay
Judges were: Andrew Pitkeathly, Andrew Bain and T Johnston
Competitors for the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society Bronze Star March, Strathspey and Reel were:
The result was:
1 Hugh MacCallum, John MacFadyen of Melfort, Cabar Feidh, Willie Murray’s Reel
2 William MacDonald, Southall, John Roy Stewart, John Morrison, Assynt House
3 John MacDougall, P/M John Stewart, Inveraray Castle, Smith of Chilliechassie
4 Gordon Speirs, John MacColl’s March to Kilbowie Cottage, Ewe wi’ the Crookit Horn, Kalabakan
Judges: Andrew Pitkeathly and Bob Hill
Results in the Gillies Cup, where 17 competed, were:
1 RU Brown, Unjust Incarceration
2 John MacFadyen, Lachlan MacNeill Campbell of Kintarbert’s Fancy
3 Hugh MacCallum, His Father’s Lament for Donald MacKenzie
4 John MacDougall, Scarce of Fishing
Judges: James Campbell, David Ross
Contestants in the Amateur Piobaireachd were:
Results:
1 Robert Elder, MacCrimmon’s Sweetheart
2 SH Law, Lament for the Old Sword
3 Robert Ash, Chisholm’s Salute
Judge: James Campbell
The Strachan Memorial Prize for March playing was won by Gavin Stoddart and the Scottish Clans Cup for Marches by Andrew Hill.
O my gosh – I’d forgotten all about my competing in this 1969 competition. I do remember desperately wanting to come second in the Amateur Piobaireachd, and win the Ram’s Head Snuff Mull, but got a third, and a pewter tankard instead ! I had taught myself ‘Chisholm’s Salute’ after hearing a snatch of it on the BBC drama/documentary about the battle of Culloden, which had affected me greatly. Bob Hill (father of Andrew and my first P/M) had given me a copy of the Kilberry Book of Ceòl Mòr to learn it, and I still have it to this day.
So many memories !
Good to see Iain K. MacLeod’s name in the MSR: Iain, son of P/M William Macleod (Seaforths) was my first teacher, and his father, my second. Gordon K. Speirs was P/M of my pipe band (57th/257th RAMC [T.A.]), later to morph into the Blue Bonnets Pipe Band at the end of that year.
John MacFadyen was one of my favourite players. I used to hear him play on the BBC Scottish Home Service piping programme called ‘Chanter’ in those days, and, from my early teens, I would record the programmes on my Dad’s reel-to-reel tape recorder.